This chicken dish is a great midweek dinner or alternative to a roast dinner.
Ingredients
4 preserved lemons, flesh and pips removed and discarded
Small bunch of flat leaf parsley, stalks finely chopped, leaves reserved for the Tabbouleh
1 tbsp harissa
3 tbsp olive oil
2 chicken thighs and 2 chicken drumsticks
2 onions, chopped
Thumb-sized piece ginger, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
200ml chicken stock
100g dried apricots
100g Siciliana olives
TABBOULEH
60g bulgar wheat
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
½ red onion, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
½ red pepper, finely chopped
Small bunch coriander, chopped
50g hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
25g flaked almonds, toasted
MINT YOGHURT
1 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
100g natural yoghurt
Method
To make the marinade, put 2 of the preserved lemon rinds into a food processor with the parsley stalks, harissa and 2 tbsp of olive oil, whizz until smooth and then season.
Put the chicken pieces into a bowl and pour over the marinade. Cover the chicken pieces with the marinade and leave for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.
Use the same blender (you won’t need to wash it) to blitz the onions, ginger and garlic with 1 tbsp of water to a purée. Cover and chill until needed.
Once the chicken has been marinated, heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.
Heat the remaining olive oil in a large casserole dish. Scrape off and keep as much of the marinade from the chicken pieces as possible, then brown the meat really well until deep golden all over.
Remove onto a plate and immediately tip the blended onion mix and left-over marinade into the casserole dish. Add a large pinch of salt and cook gently for 10 minutes until starting to caramelise.
Finely slice the remaining two preserved lemon rinds and add to the pan along with the spices. Cook gently for 5 minutes. Tip in the chopped tomatoes and chicken stock, season and bring to the boil.
Add in the apricots and olives, and sit the chicken pieces on top, adding any juices from the plate. Cook in the oven for 40 minutes, or until the meat is cooked through.
To make the tabbouleh, cook the bulgar wheat in a large pan of boiling water for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain well, tip into a large bowl and toss with the extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning. Stir through the red onion, tomato, pepper, coriander and parsley leaves.
Just before serving, stir through 1/2 the nuts, tip into a serving bowl and sprinkle with the remaining nuts.
Finally, to make the mint yogurt, put the chopped mint into a bowl. Add the yogurt, season and mix together.
To serve place the chicken pieces and sauce alongside the tabbouleh and drizzle generously with the mint yogurt.